How to beware the pitfalls and rogue operators when buying a park home

This, they reasoned, would free up funds for their impending retirement and take away concerns about leaving a house unattended for weeks at a time while they escaped to the sun. It’s a life changing trajectory that many have taken but it can be fraught with issues as they and others have discovered.

Many of the problems now lie with unscrupulous owners of holiday parks. These rogue operators play on the public’s ignorance of rules and regulations attached to park home sites.

There are two types of park licences. One is residential, which means you can live on site permanently and have it as your main address. This means your mail can be delivered there, you pay council tax and are eligible to vote, register at a GP surgery and dental surgery and can apply for school places and claim benefits.

The other is a holiday or leisure licence which allows you to stay in your park home for holidays or extended stays. It cannot be your main address and you can’t have mail delivered there or use the address to register at a GP surgery or to claim benefits, vote etc.

Lucy and Carl’s nightmare began when they spotted a park home for sale for £90,000 in a pretty area close to the coast. “The first question I asked was can this be our permanent address and can we live here all year round,” says Lucy. "The owner said ‘yes, no problem’.

I also asked if we could have mail delivered and register to vote and he said yes. However, he qualified it by saying ‘you’re not supposed to but there are ways round these things’ and added that lots of people on the site lived there year round.

"He was very convincing so we paid a deposit of £5,000 but when I looked into it further I was horrified and asked for my money back. We are still negotiating on that.” Lucy and Carl’s story is very familiar to Carole Keeble of the Holiday Park Action group.

She is also co-founder of COAT, the Caravan owners advisory team, a group of volunteers who help those with holiday static caravan or lodge related problems. It campaigns for stricter regulations and proper enforcement of consumer rights on mis-selling and other issues such as the raising of site fees and security of tenure.

The issue of rogue traders has never been so pressing as the number of park home sites is booming. Carole says: “It’s an issue that has been going on for years. Sometimes people don’t realise they are buying on a holiday park rather than a residential site. It will be in the small print on a contract but we think the salesperson should also flag it up.”

She adds that while those who quickly realise their mistake and who have paid a deposit on a credit card may have a slim chance of getting their money back. Those who have paid in cash have little hope.

Other issues regularly reported to COAT and Holiday Park Action include snagging problems on second hand park homes. There is also ignorance over ongoing costs.

“People rushed to buy park homes during the pandemic without thinking about site fees, which are a few hundred pounds a year, and the depreciation in value of a park home as it gets older. There are also selling fees to consider as, realistically, you have to sell through the park owners. No-one wants to buy a park home with no pitch because most of the value is in the pitch,” says Carole.

Another issue on badly run parks is that complaining can make you a target for eviction on questionable grounds. If you breach the park rules, you can be evicted within 28 days.

COAT and Holiday Park Action want to see more rigorous controls of the park home sector, which they say is booming and is becoming a focus for overseas investors.

“The issues have been ignored by the government for so many years and yet the number of people looking to us for help has risen dramatically,” says Carole. “We need more local authority checks on holiday parks but the resources are not there.”

As ever, the rogue park operators and salespeople are not in the majority and there are some very good park home sites. The message is do your homework before buying.

Carole says: “The best advice is to take the sale agreement document to a consumer solicitor before signing anything. You wouldn't spend tens of thousands of pounds on any other property, without checking it out legally first.”

*The Holiday Park Action Group is on Facebook and YouTube. You can find C.O.A.T at thecaravanownersadvisoryteam.co.uk.